The invention relates to livestock immobilization apparatus and, more particularly, to a handheld holder for holding an avian hatchling during a gender and/or hydration examination as well as a gender and/or hydration examination process facilitated by such apparatus.
The turkey-rearing industry, among others, is keenly interested in determining the sex of hatchlings as early as possible. Generally hatchlings are raised in separate-sex farms. One reason for separate-sex rearing is that toms (males) get so much larger than hens that at harvest the toms and hens are sent through separate factory-grade process lines specifically scaled for handling the larger or smaller carcasses according to sex.
One current popular practice to determine hatchling sex is to have skilled practitioners manually do so with each hatchling by squeezing the perineal area that surrounds the alimentary vent (or, in more accurate language, the “cloaca”) and then rubbing a finger tip over the vent.
In this way, sex is determined based on hatchling anatomy and/or structure that is associated with the hatchling's vent (ie., cloaca). In actual practice, sex determination is reckoned by whether anatomical structure or organs characteristics of males are present or not. If present, then the hatchling is reckoned a male of course. If absent, then the hatchling is presumed a female. The preferred organs or structure for this determination are preferably the male “tokki,” which might be reckoned as structure of the phallus.
By way of background, the custom of avian vent-sexing extends back to an early origin with Japanese practitioners who over time refined the practice to a high level of skill. Accordingly, terminology common in the field today shows these Japanese roots, and the particular structure on which to base a manual vent-sexing determination is referred to as “tokki.” Presumptively “tokki” corresponds to structure of the phallus. What this structure appears like in turkeys is miniature testes gonads. As an aside, chickens differ from turkeys in that male hatchlings thereof present what appears more like a single ball structure. However, the true avian testes gonads in at least turkey or chicken hatchlings are deeper inside the abdomen than the “tokki” structure searched for by vent-sexing examiners. The “tokki” structure may actually be intermediate sperm reservoirs downline from the true testes gonads. Regardless, this “tokki” structure is found retracted just inside a peripheral portion of the alimentary vent in male avian hatchlings. The presence or absence of the “tokki” structure has been used by vent-sexing examiners successfully for many long years to determine sex of first-day hatchlings, and with a very high degree of accuracy.
Beyond gender determination, the practice of such manual examinations can furthermore be utilized to make a hatchling quality determination, such as hydration and/or deformation issues. That is, the examiner can be making determinations if a hatchling is normally (or sufficiently) hydrated or, in the alternative, problematically dehydrated. Also, the examiner can be making determinations if the hatchling has deformations in vent and/or surrounding perineal area that are unacceptable. Sexors are the only service personnel in the turkey (and/or poultry) industry that identify deformations in this area of the bird's anatomy. Identifying unacceptable deformations in this area of the bird's anatomy is only critical for breeding stock, and birds afflicted with such are culled immediately. The problematically dehydrated birds are typically culled their first day too because they have a low survival rate, and it is more efficient to cull them immediately rather than waste costly resources on them.
The inventors hereof know very well the difference between a healthy, sufficiently hydrated bird and dehydrated bird by manual inspection. Such indicators include the following. Before a hatchling is manually inspected, it is squeezed gently to void its alimentary vent of meconium. In birds, the “meconium” is the first stool or discharge of a hatchling. (Correspondingly, in mammals, meconium is typically a dark greenish mass that accumulates in the bowel during fetal life and is discharged shortly after birth.)
To void the vent of meconium, typically an examiner gently squeezes the hatchling's abdomen while concurrently giving the hatchling a single flick-of-the wrist shake toward the ground, with the hatchling's vent ultimately pointed down. To observers, this is not only a quick one-handed movement but is also appears something like squirting a stream from a rubber syringe, as with both a quick squeeze on the bulb and a flick with the wrist to the ground. Alternatively, the motion might be likened to someone wringing dry a soaking wet sponge ball.
If the hatchling is healthy, a watery squirt of considerable volume is obtained. With dehydrated birds, either no to little meconium comes out, and what does (if any) is chalky and thick.
As an aside, healthy (eg, sufficiently hydrated) hatchlings are typically plump in a worker's grip. Dehydrated birds feel shriveled and bony. Moreover, the legs of the hatchlings provide another tell-tale sign.
Healthy (properly hydrated) hatchlings have healthy legs (which is known to professional practitioners who sex hatchlings by the thousands and thousands each week) in contrast to dehydrated birds, whose legs have a wrinkled texture, like raisins.
In review, the practice of manually determining the sex of a hatchling to date has involved two separate steps of squeezing—gently, hopefully—the hatchling to do so. The first occasion of squeezing the hatchling is undertaken to void the vent of meconium. The second occasion of squeezing the hatchling is practiced to distend slightly the “tokki” structure—which is found retracted just inside a peripheral portion of the alimentary vent in male avian hatchlings—to a distended position protruding slightly outside alimentary vent. Albeit the step of voiding of the vent of meconium does help the examiner make a hydration determination, the primary purpose thereof is simply to allow the examiner to better see and feel whether the “tokki” structure is present or absent.
This second occasion of squeezing the hatchling (ie., to distend slightly the “tokki” structure) is usually practiced with the worker jamming his or her right thumb tip in the perineal area just above the vent (eg., into the gut of the bird), and then pinching the lower perineal area (eg., the rump of the bird) between his or her left thumb and forefinger. Hence, workers manually apply a squeeze by applying pressure at three points surrounding the bird's vent (cloaca). The foregoing allows the examiner to better see and feel whether the “tokki” structure is present or absent.
Suspicions have been forming nowadays that the practice of manually sexing hatchlings is causing harm or premature mortality to the hatchlings. It is feared that the jamming of a thumb nail in the gut of the hatchling is causing unwanted bruising. Worse still, it is known that most unwanted ruptures of the yolk sac are sexing injuries. That is, rupture of the yolk sac is most at risk when the hatchlings are squished and shook to clear meconium from their vents. The problem with the bruising is that it may impair growth or, that is, hatchlings bruised on their first day may not grow to be as heavy. But worse yet is the fate of hatchlings whose yolk sacs are ruptured, because the rupture kills. They die.
What is needed is an improvement for workers in the business of manually determining the gender of hatchlings, or optionally determining quality of hydration as well, which overcomes shortcomings of the prior art way of doing business and is kinder to the hatchlings.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of the drawings and preferred embodiment(s) and example(s).